VOIPo Launch Updates

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by phonedev

Tim - excellent product. But sorry, if I missed something here. How is it different from products such as RingCentral, 800PBX, Virtual PBX and GotVMail.

All these players have been eating this business for quite some time. Few of them are losing grounds and few of them heavily funded. I know Ringcentral has crossed into UK and 800PBX coming up with unified messaging soon on top of their virtual pbx systems. Virtual PBX's call center application works well. GotVMail is the leader amongst all.

Let me know if you would like to partner with anyone in those companies. I will be very happy to help.

Thanks.

Our service is actually a residential service with a full reseller offering attached.

Hosted PBX is something that will be coming in the future, but is not part of the initial launch.

[livepublicity]

Any update?
btw i was trying to send a fax and got this error:
Fatal error: Class 'finfo' not found in /var/www/secure.voipo.com/controllers/fax_numbers.class.php on line 128

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by livepublicity

Any update?
btw i was trying to send a fax and got this error:
Fatal error: Class 'finfo' not found in /var/www/secure.voipo.com/controllers/fax_numbers.class.php on line 128

The web UI was just moved onto a new server so it'll be able to handle volume without any issues and that could have resulted in something changing that shouldn't have for the send fax page.

I'll have a developer take a look at that specific area Monday morning.

[VOIPoTim]

I'm not going to post a specific timeline since I can't really control any technical issues or bugs that are uncovered which will delay launch, but we're shooting for the launch within a few weeks.

We brought in an entirely new team with significantly more competent people. Here is an example: http://www.prleap.com/pr/119372/

They have been auditing and cleaning up what the old team did to make sure we're ready to go. Unfortunately, they've found a lot of areas which were questionable and we opted to redo them just to make sure we won't run into issues down the road.. This is basically complete now and we're double and triple checking that everything looks solid and working out any remaining issues that do come up.

Internally things are moving now as well since I feel confident in our launching soon. We're moving into our new office now that all the furniture was setup last week, hiring for CS, etc.

Our biggest mistake was hiring the wrong people on the technical side early on and holding on to them too long before accepting that they could not deliver.

Fortunately, now that we're on more solid ground there, this shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for the interest and continued patience!

[DarkSorrow]

Sweet! Do we get to keep our current account? Also when do you plan on adding more Missouri cities? It's really lacking

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by DarkSorrow

Sweet! Do we get to keep our current account?

Yes, for those of you in the beta currently, you'll have the option of keeping your current account with current phone numbers, etc. It should actually be pretty seamless.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

The web UI was just moved onto a new server so it'll be able to handle volume without any issues and that could have resulted in something changing that shouldn't have for the send fax page.

I'll have a developer take a look at that specific area Monday morning.

Just as a heads up, I just had someone take a look at this and it's fixed. It was basically something not installed with the new php installation on the new server that needed to be. All set now.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by DarkSorrow

Also when do you plan on adding more Missouri cities? It's really lacking

Is there a specific area in MO you're looking for?

Check https://secure.voipo.com/servicecheck for all the areas we'll be able to offer service in.

Anything in the "Launch" section we can issue phone numbers from, but may/may not necessarily carry them in our inventory ahead of time depending on the demand for the area.

If there is an area in that list that you need, just e-mail support@voipo.com and we'll either be able to issue a number for that area or let you know what its status is.

[DarkSorrow]

Branson, Reeds Spring, Branson West. Otherwise it looks good on launch

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by DarkSorrow

Branson, Reeds Spring, Branson West. Otherwise it looks good on launch

If it's not on the launch list, we won't be able to help much. I just meant if there are any on the launch list but not the beta list that you wanted now.

[Legalcom]

Tim,

Thanks for all the updates on the service you are launching. Couple of questions from a guy who is opening an executive suites location in northern Sacramento, CA (Area Code 916) next month:

1) Is VOIPo a solution for small business?

2) We'll offer T-1 to our 15, or so, tenants. Assuming no one is a phone or data bandwith hog, is 1.544 realistic for 15 phone numbers?

3) Do we need SIP on our T-1?

4) If VOIPo is right for our application, will it be available in time for our opening? Alternatively, may we be added to the Beta, if that is a way to access the program?

Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts on these questions.

-- Dave Alden/Legal.com, Inc.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by Legalcom

Tim,

Thanks for all the updates on the service you are launching. Couple of questions from a guy who is opening an executive suites location in northern Sacramento, CA (Area Code 916) next month:

1) Is VOIPo a solution for small business?

2) We'll offer T-1 to our 15, or so, tenants. Assuming no one is a phone or data bandwith hog, is 1.544 realistic for 15 phone numbers?

3) Do we need SIP on our T-1?

4) If VOIPo is right for our application, will it be available in time for our opening? Alternatively, may we be added to the Beta, if that is a way to access the program?

Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts on these questions.

-- Dave Alden/Legal.com, Inc.

Hi David,

Honestly, I don't think our service would be best for what you're looking for.

In general for best quality, you want to plan for about 100kbps per simultaneous call. The number of lines doesn't matter necessarily, but if you did have 15 and they were all in use at the same time, that likely wouldn't be enough bandwidth.

Since you are using a T1, you may want to look at using a portion of the T1 for voice instead of using VoIP. Any minor fluctuation in bandwidth is going to cause a problem with any VoIP service using a T1. By using voice service directly from the T1 provider (usually called channelized service), they just basically allocate a portion of your T1 to voice channels and it's more of like a landline service vs a VoIP service that uses your internet connection if that makes sense. It's generally more cost effective as well when you're dealing with 10+ lines.

Feel free to send me an email at td@voipo.com if you have any other questions or want some more info on this.

Have a great weekend!

[wildweasel]

Another month gone, any news on a start date yet?, will it be this year?

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by wildweasel

Another month gone, any news on a start date yet?, will it be this year?

This post has the latest update.

http://forums.hostgator.com/showpost...&postcount=254

Most other VoIP services have taken 2-3 years of development so we're right on track with that. We expected launch sooner, but ultimately hired people who could not deliver on the technical side.

In terms of a specific launch date, we'll launch the service when we're confident that we're ready in terms of technical, staffing, legal and regulatory issues being a non-issue as we grow.

We don't anticipate much more of a delay at all since our new guys on the tech side are just mainly cleaning up, but we're won't be posting a specific date or timeline since there are many variables.

Thanks for the interest!

[fanfavorite]

Is this service available for Canadian Customers? I only see US states in the availability checker.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by fanfavorite

Is this service available for Canadian Customers? I only see US states in the availability checker.

We do have plans to add Canadian services after the US launch, but no ETA for you on that.

[fanfavorite]

Ok thanks Timothy. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by fanfavorite

Ok thanks Timothy. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Sure, just let me know if you have any other questions.

By the way, for everyone, be on the lookup for some VOIPo announcements to be posted towards the end of the week.

[fanfavorite]

I think I have a good understanding of everything already, just need to wait now. Let me know if you need any Canadian testers when the time comes!

[wildweasel]

Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

Sure, just let me know if you have any other questions.

By the way, for everyone, be on the lookup for some VOIPo announcements to be posted towards the end of the week.

The end of which week?

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by wildweasel

The end of which week?

The end of this week.

[wildweasel]

I am getting a lot of wrong number calls to the toll free number that I had at VOIPo, I canceled the number but I am still getting calls, how do I stop this? Thanks.

[VOIPoTim]

Originally Posted by wildweasel

I am getting a lot of wrong number calls to the toll free number that I had at VOIPo, I canceled the number but I am still getting calls, how do I stop this? Thanks.

If you canceled it via the control panel, it is in a pending cancellation state since we had some users who tested cancellations during the BETA just to see how the control panel responded with confirmations, etc. Just contact support@voipo.com with the number and we can get it completely canceled for you.

BTW, before you ask, I was typing an update for today when I saw your reply come in. Check back and it'll be posted within the hour.

[VOIPoTim]

Residential VoIP Launch Timeline

Our new development team has made significant progress in cleaning up and preparing for launch. We are in the process of winding down the residential BETA and are seeing more than a huge number of our participants converting to paid accounts, porting in numbers from other carriers, and making VOIPo their primary service provider for home telephone service.

In August, we'll be opening our residential service up to HostGator customers and VIP Lauch Group members. We expect the service will then be opened up to the general public in September.


Residential VOIP Reviews

As some of you know, we've had several hundred people using our residential service in the BETA. Many of them have been using it for 18+ months as development has progressed. DSLReports.com is a definitive source for VoIP Reviews and Discussion. The first public reviews for VOIPo are starting to show up there and our residential service currently has a 96% overall rating based on the average of the following scores:

Website: 84%
Ease of Installation: 100%
Call Quality: 98%
Reliability: 98%
Tech Support: 100%
Value for money: 98%

For reference, on the same time, Vonage is currently at 80% and both ViaTalk and Packet8 are at 75%. They updating their "ranking" of all providers periodically and the provider currently ranked #1 is sitting at 95% now. We anticipate topping the charts to become the top rated VoIP provider there with the next update.

http://www.dslreports.com/comments/3156

We anticipate our ratings will only improve....particularly the website rating as documentation and support materials are posted. Given the fact that we have been in Alpha/Beta for the time period these reviews cover, we feel pretty happy about the results. There has been less than 3 hours of systemwide downtime during that entire Alpha/Beta phase over the last 18 months. For a service not at production level, that's something we're feeling good about.


Residential vPanel Demo

We've put up a live, functional demo of our control panel for our residential service for you to see.

URL: https://secure.voipo.com
User: 5618860661
Pass: demo

Obviously this is the first version, and there is a lot of room for improvement, but based on the feedback we've incorporated during development, we feel that vPanel provides one of the most comprehensive feature sets and user experiences overall when compared to other residential VoIP control panels. We'd like to hear your feedback as well so that we can look at incorporating it into the next version.


VOIPo Express BETA Accounts

Several hundred of you have been participating in the beta for our VOIPo Express service which offers toll-free numbers, online faxing, and virtual local numbers for the last few months. We appreciate all of the feedback that you've provided us with. As we prepare for launch, we are winding this BETA down.

Soon you will be able to convert your Express account and any of the numbers in it to a paid account with no interruption in service. Any accounts not converted to paid accounts by September 1st will be removed. Please review your BETA account and decide if you would like to maintain it. If you do wish to maintain it, please remove any numbers that you don't wish to keep. Several thousand numbers are currently in use and removing unused numbers will greatly assist us in final cleanup.

We expect to open this service up to all HostGator customers in August at the same time the residential service is available.

[wildweasel]

Thank You, I'll send an email to that address. I'll see if I can post a jpg of my control panel for call centric or a list of their services for comparison.